Indexes for Bay Area Home and Condo Values Hit New Highs

Having ticked up an upwardly revised 1.1 percent in March, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index for single-family home values within the San Francisco Metropolitan Area – which includes the East Bay, North Bay and Peninsula – gained another 1.5 percent in April and the index for area condos gained 1.8 percent as well, lifting each index to new all-time highs.

That being said, the year-over-year gain in the overall index for single-family home values dropped to 5.0 percent, which is the smallest year-over-year gain since July of 2012 and versus 7.8 percent higher on a year-over-year basis at the same time last year, led by gains in the bottom third of the market.

Having gained 1.5 percent in April, the index for the bottom third of the Bay Area market is now running 10.4 higher versus the same time last year. The index for the middle third of the market is running 5.2 percent higher versus the same time last year having ticked up 1.0 percent in April. And having jumped 2.2 percent in April, the index for the top third of the market is only up 3.6 percent versus the same time last year.

while the index for the top third of the market is running 24.2 percent above its previous peak ten years ago, the index for the bottom third of the market remains 6.7 percent below its 2006-era peak.

And facing its first year-over-year loss in five years, the index for Bay Area condos jumped 1.8 percent in April for a 1.6 percent year-over-year gain and is running 24.3 percent above its previous cycle peak in October 2005.

And across the 20 major cities tracked by the home price index, Seattle, Portland and Dallas reported the highest year-over-year gains for the third month in a row, up 12.9 percent, 9.3 percent and 8.4 percent respectively versus a national average of 5.5 percent.

Our standard SocketSite S&P/Case-Shiller footnote: The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices include San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda in the “San Francisco” index (i.e., greater MSA) and are imperfect in factoring out changes in property values due to improvements versus appreciation (although they try their best).